Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4578 - 3660 Injustice League (12)

Cyborg obtained the spaceship blueprint, but it's incredibly complex, and only Batman can truly understand it. That's the main reason Superman brought him on board. Neither his nor Wonder Woman's ability to read specialized blueprints and sense of space compares to Batman, so they have to rely on him.

Additionally, they brought along this universe's Green Lantern because they've already confirmed that Green Lantern energy can interfere with the collection engine. When Brainiac tried to use the same method to collect Miami, the four of them boarded the spaceship using the same approach.

However, this time wasn't as easy as before. Brainiac clearly discovered that they have a way to infiltrate the spaceship, and every node is heavily guarded, with more than double the number of guards they encountered previously.

Batman glanced outside the door of the collection laboratory, and all he could see were robots.

"We've really pissed him off," Batman shook his head and said, "By the way, where did you find out that Brainiac has this technology?"

"It's none of your concern," Superman replied.

Batman didn't press further. He glanced at the formation of robots outside and said, "If such a thing truly exists, it must be located in an extremely core area. Charging all the way there seems unlikely, it'd be best to find a way to distract them."

"I'll go," Green Lantern said, "I'm very skilled at defending against energy attacks. I can take most of them away, but you'll still have to handle the rest yourselves."

Superman and Batman nodded. Wonder Woman seemed to want to say something, but Superman shot her a glare, and she fell silent.

Green Lantern flew out. The alarm outside blared deafeningly, causing the entire floor to quake slightly. Countless robots swarmed towards Green Lantern's direction.

Taking advantage of the situation, Superman and his companions headed towards the core area.

With the map, they hardly made any wrong turns. Batman led them through the complex interior of the spaceship. As they approached the central area, the equipment became more sophisticated, and the structure more intricate.

Their two consecutive invasions were too brief for Brainiac to produce more robots. The limited number of robots was dispatched to defend the perimeter, so ironically, the closer they got to the core, the fewer robots there were. They even had the leisure to chat.

"Have you decided what to do?" Batman asked, "If they retrieve Lois from the time point when she was killed, she's still pregnant. Are you sure she can handle such a shock?"

"That's none of your business!" Superman replied through gritted teeth, "She's different from you, she wouldn't just blame me, she'd definitely understand me!"

Batman shook his head, showing a disapproving expression, but he didn't say much more. Superman was so irritated that he punched the wall again.

"I know you're trying to force me to admit I was wrong. You're always like this, those who disagree with you are wrong." Superman sneered, "To prove this point, you're almost unscrupulous. Despite how much Lois trusted you when she was alive."

"I respect her deeply," Batman said, "because she was a good person with clear judgment."

They continued onward, arriving at a corridor near the central hall. Here, the guards increased in number again. Superman used his laser eyes to take out a few, and when the others rushed over, he and Wonder Woman dealt with them together.

Batman also intervened but struggled against the energy weapons, and his cape got burnt away in a large portion.

"Look at this, here's Batman." Superman stood by the door coldly, "Do you want to prove you're right? How would you prove it?"

Batman remained silent. Superman went in first. For some reason, Brainiac wasn't present. They thought it was Green Lantern who led Brainiac away, but it was actually someone else.

A professional team—or, more accurately, a gang—dug a hole right beneath the spaceship, taking away the engine along with the collection laboratory.

Hal dug, Bruce dismantled, and Clark flew with the spoils swiftly, moving as fast as lightning and agile as the wind.

Brainiac was almost steaming with rage, commanding the escort ship to personally chase them, leaving him no time to deal with the few aboard the spaceship.

They entered the hall. This was a very spacious area, with a large machine at the center that looked like Brainiac's server.

"It seems that if we destroy this place directly, Brainiac might also..."

"You can't kill him," Batman said, "He has countless backups in the interstellar network. Even if you destroy the server here, he will resurrect elsewhere."

Superman turned and squinted his eyes, realizing Batman's choice of words was deliberate. He looked at Batman and said, "To you, eliminating Brainiac also counts as murder?"

"No, he's just an electronic life form."

"He has wisdom like humans."

"But he has no soul."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. If you have no insights in technology, don't argue with me about these." Batman inserted a floppy disk into an interface and began to operate.

"Indeed, Joker also has a soul." Superman said sarcastically, "Even though it's an ugly, disgusting, wicked soul. You still believe it was wrong to kill him."

"I only want you to understand one principle. Violence only breeds violence, and power only brings more extreme power. If you want to educate a child, you can't do it by hitting and scolding. Otherwise, he'll use the way you treat him against everyone in this world."

"Do you really believe there was hope for Joker?" Superman said while looking at Batman's back, his tone filled with disbelief.

"Whether there's hope or not is not a fixed standard. If you set a line with a subjective standard, those above the line are salvageable, and those below are not. Then how do you know your standard is correct? How can you guarantee that those you've saved are worth saving, and those you haven't are worth abandoning?"

"So you choose to save everyone?"

"I can only choose this way." Batman paused, clearly not at ease himself, and said, "When you hold the power of life and death, you either choose to save everyone or save no one. That's the only way to ensure fairness—nobody gave me the right to select humanity, and nobody gave you that right, Clark. You're not God, you don't have the right to do this."

Superman's heart was beating somewhat fast, so he stood up and said, "Then why couldn't you save Lois?"

"I swear I tried my best." Batman took a deep breath, looked at Superman and said, "I have apologized to you countless times for this. This is the only thing I did wrong."

Superman stared at him, his Adam's apple moving up and down, as if he had a thousand words to say, but they were all stuck in his throat.

"I am willing to pay the price for my mistakes. But why, when you chose to rule humanity with might, granting yourself the power to select the chosen like God, did you not choose to abandon me?"

"Do you really think I don't dare to kill you?!"

Batman said nothing, just stood in front of him, gazing at him. Superman felt like he had fallen into the Sun, flames devouring his skin.

Superman slowly raised one hand, just like in countless nightmares, just like in the countless nightmares where he strangled the Joker's throat. He slowly placed his hand on Batman's neck.

"Make a decision." Batman said, "If I die here, you can blame everything on Brainiac, take what's on the disk to negotiate with outsiders, reboot the Earth, regain everything you once lost... Give my regards to Little Kent."

Superman's hand started to tremble. Batman's words were like the whispers of devils. Yes, if only this person were gone, he could forget this terrible experience and start anew, as if nothing had happened, everything would...

The nightmare scenes began to replay in his mind again: Lois's cries of sorrow, Joker's laughter, the sky red as blood...

Some blood-red crept up into his eyes. In those blue eyes, like Arctic storms, darkness began to spread continuously. The muscle lines bulging on his arm trembled constantly, but his fingers seemed to be caught by some kind of magic, refusing to move at all.

Hiss.

A soft sound.

Superman looked down in disbelief. A longsword had pierced through Batman's chest. Another faint sound of a sharp object slicing through flesh. At the moment the sword was withdrawn, blood gushed out. The figure in front of him slowly fell, revealing the face behind. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

In Batman's blurred vision clutching his chest and falling to the ground, Wonder Woman put down the blood-stained longsword in her hand.

Her eyebrows gentle, her gaze calm. The arched brows and nose like a kindly mountain, appearing holy in the hazy view, like a statue from Ancient Greece, as if the Earth Mother had descended to the world.

She looked down at the fallen Batman, with compassion and gentleness as if gazing at a swaddled baby.

This wasn't the Wonder Woman from their universe. Batman thought almost immediately; he was deceived, they were deceived.

Superman was completely frozen.

The dense smell of blood lingered at the tip of his nose. His heart weakly beat out the faint sound of the last blood, swirling around his ears. Increasingly hurried gasps, increasingly deep pain, increasingly weak pulse...

Something rushed from his heart straight to his brain. There was a bang, Superman heard the sound of some barrier breaking.

The emotional shackles concerning Batman that Charles had set for him were instantly broken. Following that came a mountain and sea impossible for anyone to resist.

Superman suddenly grabbed Wonder Woman's neck, his fingers instantly clenching. Blood red erupted from his pupils—he lost his sanity like a beast.

"No..."

A low call came from behind him. Superman seemed unable to hear anything anymore; in his heart was only the turbulent killing intent.

"No!... Don't kill her! Clark... cough cough cough..."

Batman's repeated voice finally pulled Superman back to reality. He turned sharply to look at Batman on one side. Blood helplessly flowed out from the wound, his breath was already very weak, but he still kept repeating:

"Stop... cease... don't... don't kill her..."

Superman threw down Wonder Woman. He looked at Batman in disbelief and roared, "She wants to kill you... she wants to kill you!!!"

"Don't... kill her..."

Superman seemed unable to accept all this, or perhaps he was afraid, and his lips began to tremble. Like a child suddenly seeing his feared thing, the immense fear even made him lose the instinct to run, standing in place at a loss.

"Bruce, she wants to kill you, she will kill you. You will die at her hands, do you understand?!" He merely repeated helplessly.

The lifeless Batman also only looked at him with soulless eyes.

Superman saw his lip shape.

Again and again.

A thousand and ten thousand times.

Until the last moment of life.

To the Joker, to Wonder Woman, to Superman, to those harmed by violence and eventually resorted to violence—

"No."